Links intelligence relating to incidents or recovered ballistic items to enable the linking of those entities to people, other incidents or objects, crime groups and events in a manner able to improve the effective investigation of firearms related incidents across the country;

Records details of ballistic item recoveries in sufficient detail to facilitate operational and strategic analysis of the information with the aim of informing local, regional and national strategic assessments of the criminal use of firearms.

The NABIS database is able to provide information on people, objects, locations or events that are linked to incidents of gun crime. This intelligence is crucial in helping investigators to understand the significance of linked incidents. On a strategic basis the intelligence is providing a context to the extent of illegal possession, supply and use of firearms and directing proactive work upstream.

NABIS will only succeed if all police forces and law enforcement agencies take every opportunity to submit every single item of recovered ballistic material that fits the NABIS submission criteria to their local NABIS hub, and ensures that the associated intelligence is entered on the database.

Forces need to ensure that all information is shared and recorded accurately and in detail on the NABIS database and that intelligence is updated to fully maximise intelligence opportunities. Scheduled audits of the Database will be carried out by the NABIS Business System Administrator, with any identified issues being fed back to forces via their point of contact.

The NABIS database is sited alongside other national information assets such as the Police National Database (PND), Violence and Sex Offender Register (ViSOR) and National Firearms Licensing Management System (NFLMS). The database is based on the design of ViSOR and uses the same infrastructure mechanisms for housing confidential information.

Access to the database is tightly controlled with users having access only to areas of information that are relevant to their role.